Target CEO Passes the Buck on Decision for Transgender Bathrooms

Target has seen major backlash over the past year from the general public after announcing the implementation of loose bathroom policies, which allow a person of either gender to use the restroom facility of his or her choice.  Target triggered nationwide boycotts with this single blog posting published in April 2016, publicizing a policy that said transgender customers were welcome to use the bathroom or fitting room that matched their gender identity.  “Everyone deserves to feel like they belong,” the post said. “And you’ll always be accepted, respected and welcomed at Target.”

Now, after a year has passed and stocks have plummeted, Target CEO Brian Cornell makes known he never approved the post and found out about it only after it was published, according to The Wall Street Journal [WSJ].  He later told colleagues that he wouldn’t have approved the decision to “flaunt” the policy and that the backlash was “self-inflicted,” reports WSJ.

The boycotts of Target shortly after the announcement cost the company millions in lost sales and added expenses.  Shopper traffic and same-store sales started sliding for the first time in years after the blog post, and the company was forced to spend $20-million installing single-occupancy bathrooms in all its stores to give critics of the policy more privacy.

Critics of the policy (like myself) cautioned it would open the door for sexual predators to victimize women and children inside the retailer’s bathrooms … and it did as I’ve previously posted [Monday, July 18, 2016 – “Target is Targeted with Transgender Exploitation”].  More than 1.4 million-people signed a pledge to stop shopping at Target unless it reversed the policy.  (I, for one, have not set foot in a Target since their corporate decision.)

Sales fell nearly 6% in the three quarters after the boycotts started when comparing the same period last year; and same-store sales have dropped every quarter since the post.

In the past, even the most widespread calls for company boycotts have tended to blow over within a matter of weeks or months.  Chick-fil-A, for example, faced a nationwide boycott in 2012 after Dan Cathy, the son of Chick-fil-A’s founder, S. Truett Cathy, set off a fury among supporters of equal rights for gay people when he told Baptist Press that the company was “guilty as charged” for backing “the biblical definition of the family unit.”  Reports then emerged detailing Chick-fil-A’s many charitable donations to organizations opposed to same-sex marriage.  Despite the backlash, Chick-fil-A’s sales increased 14% in 2012.

It seems that after facing a considerable drop in sales, and continuing to experience the effects of the nationwide boycotts in Target stores, CEO Cornell has decided he must do something to try to gain the support of former shoppers.  However, it appears that he may be trying to thread a very small needle by doing so “without agreeing to demands that Target retract its policy.”

This may be rather difficult, as LifeSite Director of Public Relations, Andy Parrish, notes: “Sexual crimes are often crimes of opportunity, allowing grown men in the girls bathroom increases opportunity for sexual crimes.  I choose my daughters’ safety over convenience of shopping at Target.”

Target’s dangerous bathroom policies are the reason behind the 2Vote’s #AnywhereButTARGET campaign that thousands have supported.  Other conservatives at American Family Association, Family Research Council and more, have been able to impact the giant corporate retailer.  Let’s continue to place a boycott target on Target for their actions and radical social agenda.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel